Bellevue Woman Who Lost Husband to Alzheimer's Launches Support Group

Joyce Wisby, of Bellvue, lost her husband to Alzheimer's disease. (WZTV)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Pat Summit's death is getting a lot of people talking about Alzheimer's disease. The Mid-State Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association says it's getting a lot of phone calls.

Alzheimer's disease is deadly and has no cure. The Alzheimer's Association and a Bellevue woman is on a mission to change that.

"This is just my very favorite picture of him," said Joyce Wisby, who lost her husband to Alzheimer's in 2014.

It's that glisten in his eye - that personality - that Wisby says she missed long before he passed away.

"He was funny as can be," said Wisby. "It was so hard for me to see how sad he was."

Her husband and best friend lived 10 long years with that same disease that took Pat Summitt's life, "It really brought back my journey with Jim."

Just as the beloved basketball coach, stepped away from her passion as her Alzheimer's symptoms progressed, Wisby says her husband, Jim, reached a point where he could no longer practice law. Then she watched him deteriorate.

"Short-term memory, long-term memory, autonomic systems everything is affected as the disease progresses in the brain," said Jim Ward, the president of the Mid-South chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

That progression, pushed Wisby to reach out to the Alzheimer's Association for help. Now, she reaches out to others..

"She currently is a facilitator of one of our support groups and its one large support groups in Nashville, Tennessee," said Ward.

"The support group is helping and my support group actually helps me," said Wisby.

She says the degenerative brain disease that robs so many of their memories, also takes so much from the people that love them...

"I know basically what the family went through," said Wisby of Summitt's family.

As the country says goodbye to a basketball legend, Wisby is still learning to live without her husband and best friend, whom she lost many years before he died, "So when he finally passed away, I thought he is whole again and he's at peace."

Wisby holds her support group once a week at the Barton House in Bellevue on 3rd Thursdays every month at 6 p.m.

You can learn more about the Alzheimer's Association here: http://www.alz.org/altn/NASHVILLE, Tenn. Pat Summits death is getting a lot of people talking about Alzheimer's disease. The Mid-State Chapter of the Alzheimer's Assocation says it's getting a lot of phone calls.

Alzheimer's disease is deadly and has no cure. The Alzheimer's Association and a Bellevue woman is on a mission to change that.

"This is just my very favorite picture of him," said Joyce Wisby, who lost her husband to Alzheimer's in 2014.

It's that glisten in his eye - that personality - that Wisby says she missed long before he passed away.

"He was funny as can be," said Wisby. "It was so hard for me to see how sad he was."

Her husband and best friend lived 10 long years with that same disease that took Pat Summitt's life, "It really brought back my journey with Jim."

Just as the beloved basketball coach, stepped away from her passion as her Alzheimer's symptoms progressed, Wisby says her husband, Jim, reached a point where he could no longer practice law. Then she watched him deteriorate.

"Short-term memory, long-term memory, autonomic systems everything is affected as the disease progresses in the brain," said Jim Ward, the president of the Mid-South chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

That progression, pushed Wisby to reach out to the Alzheimer's Association for help. Now, she reaches out to others..

"She currently is a facilitator of one of our support groups and its one large support groups in Nashville, Tennessee," said Ward.

"The support group is helping and my support group actually helps me," said Wisby.

She says the degenerative brain disease that robs so many of their memories, also takes so much from the people that love them...

"I know basically what the family went through," said Wisby of Summitt's family.

As the country says goodbye to a basketball legend, Wisby is still learning to live without her husband and best friend, whom she lost many years before he died, "So when he finally passed away, I thought he is whole again and he's at peace."

Wisby holds her support group once a week at the Barton House in Bellevue on 3rd Thursdays every month at 6 p.m.